Schooner Schoon"er, n. [See the Note below. Cf. {Shun}.]
(Naut.)
Originally, a small, sharp-built vessel, with two masts and
fore-and-aft rig. Sometimes it carried square topsails on one
or both masts and was called a {topsail schooner}. About
1840, longer vessels with three masts, fore-and-aft rigged,
came into use, and since that time vessels with four masts
and even with six masts, so rigged, are built. Schooners with
more than two masts are designated three-masted schooners,
four-masted schooners, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.
[1913 Webster]

Note: The first schooner ever constructed is said to have
been built in Gloucester, Massachusetts, about the year
1713, by a Captain Andrew Robinson, and to have
received its name from the followingtrivial
circumstance: When the vessel went off the stocks into
the water, a bystander cried out,``O, how she scoons!''
Robinson replied, `` A scooner let her be;'' and, from
that time, vessels thus masted and rigged have gone by
this name. The word scoon is popularly used in some
parts of New England to denote the act of making stones
skip along the surface of water. The Scottish scon
means the same thing. Both words are probably allied to
the Icel. skunda, skynda, to make haste, hurry, AS.
scunian to avoid, shun, Prov. E. scun. In the New
England records, the word appears to have been
originally written scooner. Babson, in his ``History of
Gloucester,'' gives the followingextract from a letter
writtenin that place Sept. 25, 1721, by Dr. Moses
Prince, brother of the Rev. Thomas Prince, the annalist
of New England: ``This gentleman (Captain Robinson) was
first contriver of schooners, and built the first of
that sort about eight years since.''
[1913 Webster]

schooner — (n.) 1716, perhaps from a New England verb related to Scottish scon to send over water, to skip stones. Skeat relates this dialectal verb to shunt. Spelling probably influenced by Dutch, but Du. schoener is a loan word from English, as are Ger.… … Etymology dictionary

schooner — ☆ schooner [sko͞o′nər ] n. [&LT; ? Scot dial. scun, to skip a flat stone across water] 1. a sailing vessel with two or more masts, rigged fore and aft 2. short for PRAIRIE SCHOONER 3. a large beer glass, usually holding a pint … English World dictionary

Schooner — Schoon er, n. [D.] A large goblet or drinking glass, used for lager beer or ale. [U.S.] [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English